


to hide outside your door

by Murf1307



Category: X-Men (Comicverse)
Genre: Ambiguous Slash, Background Relationships, Family, Gen, Grief/Mourning, Missing Persons
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-03
Updated: 2020-02-03
Packaged: 2021-02-28 00:07:59
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,328
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22544527
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Murf1307/pseuds/Murf1307
Summary: Darwin goes into the Vault.  Without a body to bury or a death to undo, Gabriel struggles with his grief.
Relationships: Alex Summers & Gabriel Summers, Armando Muñoz/Gabriel Summers
Comments: 4
Kudos: 10





	to hide outside your door

**Author's Note:**

> Well, at least 'to thrive' is still technically canon compliant, I guess. 
> 
> The Darwin/Gabriel in this isn't explicit, but, like, since I'm one of maybe 10 people, if that, who have ever shipped this, I can say definitively that we're starved for content, so this should count.
> 
> Also includes hints of Alex/Logan because I'm still deep in my feelings about that relationship, too.

"You — you sent him there, knowing he might never get back, never get _out_ ?" Gabriel struggles with his anger, blunt fingernails digging into his palms. "He survives everything, Scott. He _survives_ . You sent him into a place where that survival can be nothing but _suffering_."

Scott tips his head down. "I know. Christ, Gabriel, I know."

"And at least _Logan_ knew Laura was going," Gabriel continues, not really caring how spiteful it sounds. "He could see her off. None of you told _me_."

"I know. I'm sorry. I just — I thought you wouldn't take it well. Considering... everything."

Gabriel snarls. "You must be spending too much time with _Xavier_ , then. Wasn't _he_ the one who lied and hid things from Summers brothers? Wasn't _he_ the one who sent teams into situations they could not survive — sent _Darwin_ into those situations?"

Scott winces. "I know. I just...we needed to do something. We need to know what we're dealing with, and Darwin, Laura, and Synch are the only ones who _might_ make it out."

"You didn't make Logan go," Gabriel snaps. "You get to _keep_ Logan."

"All I can say is that I'm sorry, Gabriel." Scott takes a breath. "I'm sorry I didn't tell you, and that we left immediately after giving them the mission, so he didn't have the chance to tell you himself."

Gabriel closes his eyes, struggling against the rage that threatens to overwhelm him. "He'll be gone for years, maybe. If they can't get out on their own. And it will be thousands of years, for him. If he doesn't lose his mind or die."

"Yes."

"And there's nothing we can do, out here, to rescue them?"

"There isn't."

Gabriel doesn't cry. The energy in his eyes evaporates tears as soon as they're made. But he can feel that kind of pain bubbling up inside him, crushing his chest and stopping up his throat.

"I don't want you to be _sorry_ , Scott," he manages. "I just _want him back._ "

With that, he turns, and leaves the Summer House.

* * *

Ecuador is hot, and sticky, and Gabriel _hates_ it.

But Darwin is here, locked away, maybe dead, maybe dying, without question suffering, and that means Gabriel at least needs to _see it_ for himself.

If he can't see Darwin, at least he can see the door he's locked behind.

How close he can _get_ to that door will depend on the Vault's security measures, of course, but he _has_ to try. For Darwin's sake — and, he supposes, the others — he has to at least know where they are.

Ecuador is a country where the main language is Spanish, so he memorized two questions and a sentence: 

— _¿Dondé en la jungla está el robot gigante?_

— _¿Hablá ingles o Krakoan?_

— _No hablo más español que estas preguntas_.

And then he'd left. He'd told no one — he doesn't want to _speak_ to Scott right now, and no one else will understand what's happening, except Logan, and he rather resents Wolverine right now, too.

He knows they're all going to lose their godsdamned minds when they realize he's missing, but he doesn't care. He knows they still remember the things he doesn't remember doing, and this will remind them of that, but he doesn't care. What matters to him is that he doesn't know a damn thing about where Darwin is, and he's not going to let that stand.

Carefully, he works his way through the jungle, getting directions now and then from increasingly frightened humans. Eventually, he can see the Sentinel looming out the treeline, and a dark satisfaction takes root in his guts.

He’s here, then.

He draws closer, closer, creeping toward the thing.

Darwin is on the other side of the door beneath the Sentinel, if he’s still alive, and while Gabriel knows going inside — or trying to, if he can even get close enough — would kill him, he at least needs to see how close he can come to it.

He stays just within the treeline, and he can see — just barely, just enough — the vault door in the stone the Sentinel slumps upon.

So close, and yet impossibly far.

He wonders what to do now. Does he draw closer, potentially revealing himself to the defenses of the Vault? Does he remain here until his brothers come for him? Does he return home, just as lost as before?

None of those ideas is particularly clever, and the last two fill him with a humiliation he cannot abide. He screws his eyes shut and sits down on the floor of the jungle.

Darwin is _gone_ , buried, like no mutant should have to remain anymore, and they cannot bring him back until they can confirm that he’s dead. Which they _can’t_ , until the vault opens again. Until Darwin returns, or doesn’t, and brings Laura and Synch back with him, or doesn’t.

Gabriel buries his face in his hands, tears evaporating again, eyes burning. 

There is nothing he can do.

* * *

“Hey.”

Gabriel blinks, tearing his eyes away from the Sentinel and the Vault, to find Alex standing a little ways behind him, to his right side. 

“Scott sent you,” Gabriel assesses, dully.

Alex shakes his head. “Not really. We sorta knew where you must’ve been headed. Scott’s kinda freaking out, but, that’s not really a surprise.”

“Yet you claim to have come on your own.”

“Yeah. Scott wanted to come himself. I told him that would be a bad idea, given how mad at him and Charles you are.” Alex sits down next to him. “But it’s probably not great for you to just sit here alone, I think.”

Gabriel’s not sure what to do with that.

Alex takes a deep breath. “It’s hard,” he says, “Losing somebody you think you can’t lose.”

“You sound like you speak from experience.” Gabriel rubs his face, not really wanting to deal with this. 

“Yeah. When — when Logan died, a couple years back, that felt... it felt like the kind of thing that couldn’t happen.” Another deep breath. “I know it doesn’t seem like it, but we were pretty close, for a while. So, when he died, it hit me pretty hard.”

Gabriel glances at him. “What did you do?”

“Well, first I got my brain fucked up by Red Onslaught and Wanda and Tony Stark on Genosha, so that kind of fucked everything up,” Alex concedes. “And things just kind of...got steadily worse, for a couple of years. By the time I got my head on straight, Scott was dead, too, and then...well, things get kinda fuzzy.”

“I suppose those are all things I should not do,” Gabriel says, dryly.

“Yeah, I’d stay away from Iron Man, if I were you.” Alex gives him a little bit of a smile. “But I think...I don’t think what you’re doing here is too bad.”

“Really.”

Alex nods. “Yeah. I mean, it’s not exactly a grave, or anything. But it’s something. You’ve got a place to grieve, I think. That’s important.”

Gabriel slumps a little. “It just...it feels _unfair_.”

Alex reaches out and squeezes his shoulder. “Yeah, it’s not fair.” 

It’s strange, hearing Alex _agree_ with him about the situation. Part of him had expected him to side with Scott, because it’s _Scott_.

“Everyone else gets their loved ones back.” Gabriel swallows. “But I’m going to have to wait for years. Because Darwin is _in there_ , so we can’t know if he’s alive or dead. It’s not _fair_ , and I feel...I feel powerless, frankly. And I hate that, too.” He lets out a mirthless laugh. “One of the twelve strongest mutants on the planet, and I feel _powerless._ ”

“C’mere,” Alex says, and pulls Gabriel into a half-hug. “You’re right. It’s not fair, and it sucks, and there’s nothing we can do about it now.”

Gabriel feels a lump in his throat as he leans into his brother’s shoulder. “Thank you.”

They sit there, like that, for a very long time.


End file.
